What's blown?

[pdawg]

The key chimes, and that where it ends. no gauge lights, radio or anything else. Battery or something else?

[Wiscon_Mark]

Sounds like battery. Clicking when you try to start?

Headlights might come on, and be super dim...

[pdawg]

no clicking, its dark and late I'll try to jump it tomorrow

[Wiscon_Mark]

If it's not clicking, it's really dead. The chime is usually the last thing to give up.

[pdawg]

thats what I thought, I just wanted some expert opinions so I could sleep well, thanks Mark

[redlegacygt]

make sure the connectors are tight as well..

[pdawg]

O.K. not the battery. Lets recap, door chmes work, remote entry and door locks work. No gauge lights work, i.e. door open light on speedo. Nothing when the you turn the key not even a click.

[AJM]

Fuse? Starter maybe?

[SilentRacer]

Are the guages themselves working? If not you might have a short, did you install anything electrical recently?

[TRUBLU]

ok, my first thought is definetly a flat battery. The question would be why?

Has it had trouble starting for awhile? (indicating a slwoly dying battery)

Jump start the car (obviously) and check to see if the alternator is charging the battery you will need to use a DMM or simply drive to walmart and get them to perform a battery/ignition test. This will determine the issue.

Infact, my best advice is to get the car to walmart or anywhere that will perform an incar diagnoses of the charging system.

If battery is dead then obviously replace the battery

If battery is fine but needs a charge and it indicates a low charging voltage then you have alternator issues and will most likely need to replace the alternator.

If battery is fine and needs a charge and alternator charging is fine then you have a deeper issue obviously. Something is draining the power from the battery. My first thought and I have seen this on SO MANY occasions is either the interior lights were left on. The next thing which have seen SO MANY times is through no fault of your own. Something as simple as the glove comparrtment light may not be shutting off from the last time you closed it. Did you you recently open it before shutting the car off? What about the trunk light if it's a sedan? Then did you recently install anything that could possibily be draining the battery? Finally, the worst one of all because of the headache it causes because of the search that it involves is the you may have a short or a ground "leak" Searching for a short can be tested using a test light in all the right spots. Check for a ground leak requires using a DMM to see if there is any places that seem to have abnormally high resistance to them.


















Also, you didn't happen to accidentally bump your park light switch did you? LOL

[TRUBLU]

Well, this ought to learn me for not reading everything through LOL

How do you know it's not the battery? Because the power locks and key chimes work? They require virtually no power and can work at around 9volts. But not much else will work on 9 Volts.

If your power locks work and your power windows work perfectly then I would agree that it's not the battery. However if the window makes no attempt to move or budges just slightly then your back to battery. Also, the radio should start up as well as the clock (if you have one) These are run off of the same power supply circuit. I would start looking under the to see if the fusible links have blown.

[Wiscon_Mark]

Yeah, it still sounds like battery...

[rougeben83]

Yeah, I'll still stick to the battery. See if you can get a trickle charger hooked up to it or something...or a jump.

I had the similar symptoms (door locks, map lights still ok, nothing else worked, heard no click) last fall. I ended up getting a new battery since the one I had was probably still the original one from the previous owner.

[Wiscon_Mark]

Sometimes it doesn't jump right away...sometimes the jumper cables just plain suck. I had a woman try to jump my friend's car (Corolla) with what looked like 14 guage wire...it couldn't even jump it...

[Huffer]

pdawg: did you replace the battery with a new one?
Just charging a dead battery can be like flogging a dead horse.

This just recently happened to me - I pulled into a gas station, everything running good.
Got gas, went to start car, nothing. Not even a chime, just the relay clicking over. No lights, no nothing. Couldn't jump start it, the battery was dead.

Replaced battery - no problems.

[backpack09]

How do your battery terminals look? Try giving them a good once over with some 100grit and see if that helps.

[pdawg]

100 amp fuse. :smt017
thanks for all your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wiscon_Mark]

100 amp fuse. :smt017
thanks for all your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So you blew a fuse?

huh...that's odd.

[Huffer]

100 amp fuse. :smt017
thanks for all your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You mean the fusible link?

[backpack09]

Did you arc your alternator? That is the only way I have ever blown a 100 FL. If not, be ware something is not quite right about your car.

[TRUBLU]

many other things can cause that. My questions is, how do arc an alternator? That has me perplexed :smt017

[backpack09]

Different car, not removing a battery terminal while swapping an exhaust. Arced the alt to battery line to ground.